EPA grants California permission to ban new gas car sales by 2035

The Biden administration has officially granted California permission to ban new gas car sales in the state by 2035. 

California set a strict emissions standard that would ban new gas cars in the state by 2035, but officials needed to obtain a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in order to proceed with the mandate.

The EPA announced on Wednesday that they would be approving two waivers, under the Clean Air Act, that grant California permission to phase out gas cars in the state – one of President Joe Biden's final acts pushing the auto industry into the green energy sector. 

One waiver grants California's near future request to mandate that 35% of new cars and light-duty trucks sales be zero emissions by 2026 and achieve 90% below current emissions by 2027.

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President Joe Biden talks after driving Jeep Wrangler 4xe Rubicon on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, during an event on clean cars and trucks.  (Susan Walsh)

The other EPA waiver allows California officials to mandate that all new car sales be zero-emission within the decade – the most strict EV mandate in the country.

However, the waivers could soon be revoked by President-elect Donald Trump, who is reportedly planning to rescind both federal EV requirements and any waiver issued for California by the Biden administration.

"Fresh off imposing his insane, job-killing electric vehicle mandate at the federal level, Crooked Joe Biden is preparing to slaughter the remnants of the U.S. auto-industry by approving California’s waiver request outlawing the sale of all gasoline-powered automobiles," incoming Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital during the campaign.

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EPA Administrator Michael Regan said that the waivers will "protect its [California] residents from dangerous air pollution coming from mobile sources like cars and trucks."

Brand new Tesla cars sit in a parking lot at a Tesla showroom on June 27, 2022 in Corte Madera, California.  (Justin Sullivan)

However, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) President and CEO Chet Thompson described the mandate as "unlawful."

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"Contrary to claims on the campaign trail that they would never tell Americans what kinds of cars we have to drive, the Biden-Harris EPA just did exactly that by greenlighting California’s ban on sales of all new gas and traditional hybrid vehicles," Thompson said in a statement. "These policies will harm consumers—millions of whom don’t even live in California—by taking away their ability to buy new gas cars in their home states and raising vehicle and transportation costs."